New government maps present practically all the West is in drought and it is not even summer season but: “That is unprecedented”

In an unprecedented transfer, Southern California officials declared a water shortage emergency and asked roughly 6 million residents to limit all outdoor watering to only as soon as every week.  

"We knew local weather change would stress our water supplies and we've been getting ready for it but we did not know it would occur this quick," mentioned Gloria Gray, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District Board of Administrators.  

The most recent authorities maps present nearly all the West is in drought, and 95% of California is struggling severe or excessive drought.

"This is real. That is severe. This is unprecedented," said Adel Hagekhalil, basic manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.  

California just isn't alone as reservoirs throughout the West are draining.  

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the nation formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, needs a new pump to make sure water can movement to Las Vegas. 

"The issue with local weather change is that it takes all the historic patterns and sort of shifts them," NASA scientist Dr. JT Reager informed CBS Information' Ben Tracy. 

Reager said the West is in a 22-year megadrought, as local weather change makes it hotter and drier. 

"We're just beginning to see the dominoes fall. It is drier, we're beginning to see much less water in our reservoirs, and we've got fires, and in California, there's just this sequence of penalties that we anticipate," mentioned Reager.